That is why most addictions seem to work

If you think about it, what you like most about the world is having a dopamine response to things around you.

How does it work? For a person to understand what it means to have an addiction to anything, they must understand what it takes to release a lot of dopamine in the brain. That is why most addictions seem to work best when they are combined with substances that are known to affect the reward centers of the brain.

For example, heroin addicts can be helped by giving them morphine or methadone, both of which act as mu-opiate receptor agonists and activate the mesolimbic pathway, which sends a Ibogaine treatment signal to the nucleus accumbens, the brain’s reward center. This stimulates dopamine release.

A better example might be a junkie who smokes cocaine in addition to heroin. Cocaine is a stimulant that activates the mesocortical pathway, which is the pathway that connects the prefrontal cortex with the limbic system.

Once the prefrontal cortex is activated by cocaine, it sends a signal down the mesocortical pathway to the nucleus accumbens, which sends a signal back up the mesocortical pathway to the prefrontal cortex. This causes dopamine to be released.